$117,963

2,987

It's done, it's done!!! We can't wait for you to see our newest illustration!

Help us print Mesoamérica Resiste, the long-awaited final graphic in an epic trilogy about globalization in the Americas. Now that the illustration is complete, we need your support to be able to share this ambitious project far and wide.

Who we are: The Beehive is a wildly motivated, all-volunteer, activist art collective dedicated to “cross-pollinating the grassroots” by creating collaborative, anti-copyright images for use as educational and organizing tools. We work as word-to-image translators of complex global stories, shared with us through conversations with folks from affected communities. We use cartoons and storytelling to break down big issues from the overwhelming world we live in, connecting the dots between social and environmental issues, and cultural and ecological diversity.

The story of this project: Over the past thirteen years we've researched, drawn, and re-drawn the story of corporate-driven globalization in the Americas, starting with posters about the Free Trade Area of the Americas and Plan Colombia. In 2004 we embarked on the initial research trip for the third poster in this trilogy, traveling from Mexico to Panama over 5 months to meet with people on the frontlines of resistance to a regional development plan then known as Plan Puebla Panama. The industrial-scale infrastructure projects of the plan (now renamed Project Mesoamerica) are what literally pave the way for the free trade model that devastates local economies. Our intensive grassroots research and collaborative design process continued for several years. After the pencil work was complete, inking the final drawings took several more years, with rotating teams of illustrators and studios in multiple locations.

This is OUR FIRST EVER poster to be printed DOUBLE-SIDED! This new format has given us the opportunity to focus on the clash between two very different world views. When folded, the outside of the poster features a colonial map of Mesoamerica, the view from the top-down. The poster opens up to an inside image twice as large, showing the view from the ground, of people's lives who are affected by the plans on the map. The two sides of the posters are drawn in different styles, to emphasize that they are opposite sides of the story of globalization.

This poster is also IN COLOR! For the first time, we've added subtle hues to the usual black and white of one of our large graphics campaigns... a warm sepia tone and swirling streams of ghost blue bring these images to life.

How we distribute our work: Our original large scale pen and ink drawings are scanned and then mass-produced, printed by the thousands as offset posters, and on fabric as portable murals brought to life by our loose band of traveling storytellers. We tour widely and do all of our own distribution, in person or via our webstore. We believe in the power of person-to-person interactions and the power of stories. We build and disseminate these visual tools with the hope that they will self-replicate, and take on life of their own. To make this abundant cross-pollination possible, all of our work is licensed under the Creative Commons (CC).

Our goal is always to return half of what we print to the regions that the stories in the graphics come from. Collaborating to fund this print run means you’re directly helping to distribute posters throughout Mesoamerica, and supporting the work of educators and organizers from frontline communities.

You can be part of this story! Our Kickstarter campaign is set at $36,000 in order to cover the costs of a huge print run of posters, multiple sets of large fabric banners (portable storytelling murals), and accompanying educational materials for touring. We have used every last scrap of our income from the past couple of years in finishing the illustration, doing test prints, and bringing on new enthusiastic bees to help hatch this poster out into the world! Now we need a burst of seed funding to get the presses rolling.

Your pledge to this project is crowd source funding at its best. With every bit you can chip in now, we are able to print exponentially more posters, leveraging the funds you donate to print tens of thousands in one run! If we're able to exceed our goal, we'll have more posters available to share freely with educators and community organizers. Raising funds above and beyond our goal will also greatly increase our capacity to send bees out on tour, and meet all of you lovely people!

Thank you so much for your support! We are SO excited to share this story with you all!

Risks and challenges

No worries! We've prepared ahead of time for prompt fulfillment of this project's rewards. Unlike many other Kickstarter campaigns that may still be in the idea phase, this project has already been in production for nine years, and will be printed DURING the Kickstarter run itself, ensuring that we will be able to send the rewards out promptly at the close of the campaign. We've spent the past six months working out all the pre-press kinks and printed trial runs, so we're waggy tailed ready for the BIG RUN now... On your doorstep in time for the holidays if that's of interest to you!

FAQ

We are pre-packaging this campaign's rewards alongside pledges as they come in, and expect to have everything in the mail no later than the 18th of December for folks that indicate that they need their package for the holidays.

For folks not needing such immediate shipment, we plan to have their orders shipped just a few days from then, no later than December 30th. Custom Banners at the 400 and 1,000 level will take an additional 2 weeks. You'll have the opportunity to pick which date you prefer, indicate the items of your choosing, and give an appropriate holiday shipping address when the campaign closes on December 10th.

(UPDATE: Because of the unexpectedly HUGE volume of orders we've received, we'll need to charge for the extra first-class/priority postage related to holiday shipping. At the close of the campaign, you'll receive a form to indicate if you definitely need shipping by Christmas. If so, we'll send you an invoice to contribute to help cover those rush charges. Thanks for your understanding!)

Unfortunately Kickstarter doesn't provide an easy and accurate way for us to include shipping based on your location. Because of this, during our last campaign we chose to just "eat it" at the end and send out everything, regardless of cost, to everyone without asking for an extra donation. It wasn't a terribly smart thing to do. Some of the $100 pledge boxes cost $40 USD just to send... We just can't absorb that kind of expense this time.

So, here's what's up. At the close of the campaign, we'll be asking for additional shipping charges from all of our international backers, based on the exact costs to your location. If you'd like to predict what this will be for you, you can go to http://postcalc.usps.com/ to calculate the cost from us to you.

Welp, probably for good reasons, Kickstarter has changed their rules to disclude "rewards in any amount over 10." So, our ability to actually have our Backers go in on our print runs with us to support their own organizations, etc. is no longer possible.

If your school or organization is interested in donating for a chunk of 100 posters or more, please contact us, we'd love to have your support on board for the BIG print run! Send a chirp to pollinators@beehivecollective.org for more information about this opportunity.

If you're looking for posters for a wholesale/resale donation price, we also do that, just send us a note. Thanks!

Glad you asked! This project is just now entering its mass-distribution phase, and so there are MANY big expenses upon us to push this graphics campaign out into the world towards its full potential!

Our MINIMUM GOAL of $36,000 will be going towards essentials within our much larger project budget.

--$32,000 for our initial and second offset print-runs in Winter and Spring 2013/14
--$17,000 for banner printing
--$ 4,000 for transportation costs to return bulk posters to Mesoamerica in Spring 2014
--$ 1,500 for narrative printing
--$14,000 for transportation and touring costs to non-income generating venues throughout the Americas in Spring and Summer 2014

The total of this basic budget is $68,500.

We've set ourselves to a STRETCH GOAL of $56,000 in hopes of getting even closer to the realistic needs of our upcoming workload... Your help in making this a reality is SO SUPER APPRECIATED!!! <3

Support this project

Select this reward

Pledge $5 or more
About $5

ENGLISH

Every bit of honey helps us towards our goal! To thank you for your part in upping the numbers on this important print run, your mailbox will receive some old-school handwriting on a love-note from the Bees! <3 ESPAÑOL

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $10 or more
About $10

ENGLISH

A special thank you PATCH! We’ve printed up five different adorable, full color, satin fabric scenes from our Mesoamérica Resiste poster. You can view all the rewards in the FAQs section or follow the links in the project description! ESPAÑOL

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $20 or more
About $20

ENGLISH

Oooh, great! Thanks! May we send you TWO PATCHES of your choosing? All images are from the Mesoamerica Resiste poster, and you can see images of the rewards in the FAQs section or follow the links in the project description! ESPAÑOL

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $25 or more
About $25

ENGLISH

Hot off the press! We can’t wait to send you the finished MESOAMERICA POSTER, along with its narration booklet that helps to explain all the imagery. We’ll also send you two patches of your choosing.You can view all the rewards in the FAQs section or follow the links in the project description! ESPAÑOL

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $25 or more
About $25

ENGLISH

Want just a smaller image from the poster for now? We’ve created two different LIMITED EDITION thank you prints exclusively for our Kickstarter Backers! A thick, hand-cranked 14" x 17" LETTERPRESS poster with a design from the Mesoamerica graphic will make its way to you, along with two satin patches of your choosing, as above! You can view all the rewards in the FAQs section or follow the links in the project description!
ESPAÑOL

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $35 or more
About $35

ENGLISH

Let us thank you by sending you a POSTER of Mesoamérica Resiste AND your choice of a hand-cranked limited edition LETTERPRESS POSTER described above! Two patches of your choosing will be tucked into your package as well... To see the options, look here: LINK!!!!! Español

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $40 or more
About $40

ENGLISH

NEW REWARD! So many people are asking, that we decided to add a new option: One to keep, and one to share! Donate at this level and we will send you TWO Mesoamérica Resiste posters! Hot off the press! Along with the narration booklets that help to explain all the imagery.
ESPAÑOL

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $50 or more
About $50

ENGLISH

Gushes of thanks will arrive on your doorstep for this one! One of the hand-cranked LETTERPRESS POSTERS described above will make its way to you, along with the FULL COMPLETED TRILOGY of anti-globalization posters! This includes: Free Trade Area of the Americas, Plan Colombia, and our newest poster, Mesoamérica Resiste! This is the first time this trilogy has been able to be sent out as a set... That's four posters plus the two satin patches above! You can view all the rewards in the FAQs section or follow the links in the project description! ESPAÑOL

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $75 or more
About $75

ENGLISH

Thank you! Thank you! With gratitude, we will send you 5 of YOUR FAVORITE different offset printed Beehive POSTERS along with 4 PATCHES and one uniquely-made LETTERPRESS POSTER of your choice! You can view all the rewards in the FAQs section or follow the links in the project description! ESPAÑOL

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $100 or more
About $100

ENGLISH

Here is your chance to SPREAD THE STORY with our gift of 10 Mesoamérica Resiste posters! Gather a group of friends together, hang a poster up in a public space, and be a part of cross-pollinating the grassroots with us. Each poster comes with a narration booklet to help you tell the stories. This gift will also come with all 5 PATCHES and a beautiful LETTERPRESS POSTER of your choosing! You can view all the rewards in the FAQs section or follow the links in the project description! ESPAÑOL

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $150 or more
About $150

ENGLISH

Here it is! Made available for the first time ever because of our last Kickstarter campaign, the COMPLETE collection of offset printed Beehive posters! It's an amazing set... with both color and black and white posters, and narratives included. We will also send you both letterpress posters from above, and your choice of satin patch! You can view all the rewards in the FAQs section or follow the links in the project description!
ESPAÑOL

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $200 or more
About $200

ENGLISH

We'll be rewarding this generous pledge by sending 10 Mesoamérica Resiste POSTERS and a 2' x 3' satin FABRIC MINI-BANNER of the beautiful All-species Council image. Each poster comes with a narration booklet to help tell the story. Also, we’ll gift you with all 5 satin PATCHES and a limited edition LETTERPRESS POSTER made just for this Kickstarter! You can view all the rewards in the FAQs section or follow the links in the project description! ESPAÑOL

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $400 or more
About $400

ENGLISH

Wow! Thank you! We would like to gift you with a Pick-Your-Own graphic on a satin FABRIC BANNER that is any size up to 8’ wide or tall! You can pick any chunk of one of our posters to be turned into a banner by grazing through our posters and choosing a section! We’ll have it custom-printed, sewn with grommets and shipped to you… PLUS the entire TRILOGY of our anti-globalization posters! You can view all the rewards in the FAQs section or follow the links in the project description! ESPAÑOL

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $1,000 or more
About $1,000

ENGLISH

We'll be headed your way to swarm you with thanks in person! Bring the Bees to your town for any one of our popular live PICTURE-LECTURES... and we'll help you do an extra awesome job of advertising for the event by custom printing a BIG FABRIC MURAL of your choice for you to keep, and a chunk of 10 POSTERS for you to distribute before the event! And of course, we'll make sure you also have the complete TRILOGY of our anti-globalization posters, and both LETTERPRESS POSTERS as well! You can view all the rewards in the FAQs section or follow the links in the project description! ESPAÑOL

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $2,500 or more
About $2,500

ENGLISH

Does your school or organization have a larger budget to donate for a presentation from us? Donating at this generous level will allow us to come visit in person and supply all the rewards of the $1,000 level, as above, AND present in additional community or grade school shows in your area! Thank you!
ESPAÑOL